Former India pacer Ashish Nehra will perform the role of Ahmedabad-based IPL franchise’s head coach during the 2022 edition of Indian Premier League while ex-England opener Vikram Solanki is in line to become ‘Director of Cricket’, PTI reported on Monday (January 3).

India’s 2011 World Cup-winning coach Gary Kirsten will be the ‘mentor’ of the new franchise, which is likely to receive its formal ‘Letter of Intent’ (LOI) during the month.

“As far as I have heard, they have signed Ashish as their head coach and someone who would be in overall charge of the franchise. Solanki will be the ‘Director of Cricket’ and also expected to double up as batting coach and Kirsten will be in a mentorship role,” a senior IPL source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

“The Ahmedabad franchise can’t announce it formally as it is a BCCI diktat and they can only make a formal announcement after they get the LOI. The head honchos of Ahmedabad franchise has already interviewed the trio and short-listed them for the season,” the source said.

Nehra was previously associated with Royal Challengers Bangalore as a bowling coach, where Kirsten was also involved for a couple of seasons.

Both of them have had a fruitful working relationship over the years. Nehra was part of the national team when Kirsten was playing the role of head coach. Nehra also shares a healthy camaraderie with Solanki, who has worked previously as a coach in IPL.

Once the Ahmedabad-based franchise gets the nod from BCCI, it will rope in a few assistant coaches as well.

According to PTI, Nehra stayed away from coaching in IPL for the last two seasons as he was keen to take an assignment only if he gets him the profile of a head coach where he can make a difference both in terms of team composition and strategy.

The report also suggests that Nehra had multiple offers from various IPL franchises but he wants to take up the challenge of building a crack team from scratch.

(With PTI inputs)